Europe Is Still Stuck in 1975.
Capital Has Already Moved On.

A growing number of profitable companies are failing to raise capital. AI projects are stalling despite significant investment. Billions in private capital are quietly bypassing businesses that, on paper, appear successful.

According to CFO and author Matteo Turi, this is not a performance problem. It is a structural one.

"Most businesses are still being run as if value comes from revenue and profit. But capital has already moved on. Today, value is driven by structure, scalability, and transferability."

In 1975, intangible assets accounted for just 17% of the S&P 500 market value. Today, that figure is close to 90%, according to Ocean Tomo. And yet, much of the business world continues to operate under outdated assumptions.

Both the US and Europe have experienced economic growth over the past five decades. But value has not been captured equally. While Europe stayed focused on industrial output and financial reporting, the US systematically built businesses around intellectual property, scalability, and global dominance.

Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet — these are businesses engineered for valuation, not just growth. This is not a story about Silicon Valley. It is a signal to the other 99% of businesses globally.

Drawing on nearly three decades in finance as a CFO and board adviser, Turi identifies three recurring patterns:

• Profitable businesses running out of cash.
• AI initiatives failing despite strong funding.
• Founders building companies investors will never back.

"Failure today is rarely about effort or ambition. It is about design."

At the core of the book is a system Turi developed in 2017 in collaboration with the University of Plymouth — The High Valuation Triangle. A three-part framework designed to build businesses that attract capital rather than chase it.

• Monetise intellectual property — turn know-how, data, and processes into scalable recurring value.
• Build a leadership engine — move beyond founder dependency and create investable management structures.
• Go global — expand reach, pricing power, and access to capital beyond local markets.

"The goal is not to chase customers, banks, or investors. It is to build a business that they chase."

Explore the High Valuation Triangle →

• The rise of intangible value. IP, data, systems, and brand now dominate corporate worth.
• The acceleration of AI. Up to 40% of AI initiatives are expected to fail due to lack of readiness and integration.
• The expansion of private capital. Projected to grow by ~$10 trillion by 2030 — and becoming more selective.

"As AI accelerates execution, it exposes what was previously hidden. The companies that succeed will not be the fastest — they will be the most structurally prepared."

Fail. Pivot. Scale. reframes failure as a diagnostic tool: Fail to identify structural weaknesses, Pivot to redesign the model, Scale to engineer value that attracts capital. The book combines real-world case studies, financial frameworks, and 26 practical and interactive scorecards to help founders, CFOs, and business leaders move from visible to investable.

In this new economy, scale is no longer the advantage of the few. Structural readiness is.